just your average craft blog... hopefully with more interesting than average crafts ;)
if you are interested in any custom creations, please contact me: sfranzwichlacz@gmail.com

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Don't Blink!

*****UPDATE 3/27/2014: after much soul searching, repeated requests, and another glimpse into copyright law I'VE DECIDED TO MAKE THESE TO ORDER! while i still highly recommend that you make them yourself using my tutorial, this is a way to support the work, and for the crafting (and time) challenged to have their own weeping angel inspired piece!

greetings readers,
i admit it. i'm a geek. and a proud one at that. i'm also a longtime doctor who fan. i grew up watching the 4th doctor (tom baker) and was never very satisfied with the ones that came after, until the series was revamped in 2005. i've successfully indoctrinated my husband into the whoniverse (we are also huge torchwood fans) and decided to decorate our bathroom with the scariest themes of the whoniverse. the bathroom is a work in progress, but i'll get to posting more about it later, i promise. it occurred to me that one of the most obvious monsters for me to make in particular was a weeping angel barbie. for those not in the know, weeping angels are creatures that appear to be statues of angels with their hands over their eyes (hence the name), but whenever someone (or something) is not looking at them they can move-fast. even blinking can allow them to get you. so here's the "why," now i'll show you the "how."

i cut a wing shape out of craft foam and added details with hot glue.

i discovered that even jointed armed barbies' arms are not in a proper position to cover their eyes so i had to cut and reattach the arms at the elbow. more hot glue.... a high temp gun makes all the difference here. her arms aren't going anywhere.

i also took the time to glue all of her joints so they are solid and attach her to a base- yes, with wooden skewers.

i realize that i'm missing a picture here, but i attached the wings next using high temp hot glue again.

a simple gauze dress was added. the gauze allows for the proper folding and drape (once paint and glue are added) to be indicative of the romanesque statues the weeping angels disguise themselves as. also in the picture below you can see peeking out from behind one of her wings my rendition of the bottle of tears from the torchwood episode "from out of the rain"

then came the problem of her hair. despite barbie's fashion sense, styling her hair any more than ponytail or down is next to impossible. in order to create the carved waves seen in statuary i needed to rely on my trusty glue gun again.

i next used craft glue to settle her dress more, and prepare the piece for priming.

and somehow i didn't get a pic of the piece primed, but just imagine the entire piece white ;) the primer i used is a regular brush on house paint primer (like Kills) you could use a spray one i suppose, but i liked how i could really saturate the dress and make it a solid piece this way.

instead of trying to fake the stone texture myself i decided to use a textured spraypaint. i am quite pleased with the results! i used a "sand" texture instead of the "stone" texture as the flake was much more to scale for the size of the doll.

and here she is in her proper place. i am quite pleased with how well she fits with the small shelf i had lying around. ....and do not worry for me who fans, i am placing a mirror directly opposite her so she will be trapped ;)

98 comments:

Eek! She's so... well... I would say lifelike, but let's go with sneaky-statue-like. ;) Seriously, though, if you hadn't told me this was a barbie underneath that tough stone exterior, I would never have known. She's absolutely stunning. But, seeing as how that last statement *could* be literal, I'm glad you've got her trapped with her own reflection. Because you never know...

My son's 9th bday is just around the corner and we already play this game at home (after watching it on dvd), so he's going to love this particular creepy statue! You are an inspiration and a wonder for its creation and providing thorough instructions. I appreciate that and you. Thank goodness you reminded me to package a mirror with it!

Awesome! Please post a link to this amazing post at http://crafty-tardis.livejournal.com/profile(You do have to be a member to post, I believe. If you don't have an LJ, they are free and easy to sign up for!)

Ah, a kindred spirit! I too grew up discovering Dr. Who through the Tom Baker episodes and had no desire at all to even try the others until the update of the franchise a few years back. Since then I've enjoyed each Dr. and companion and am more emotionally attached to the series than I ever could have thought possible. Blink remains one of my favorite episodes and is a truly terrifying episode of television. Great to watch in the dark!

Stumbled across this on pinterest, and must say i used to watch dr who as a child (23 now) same dr as you ma'am. My husband recently yanked me back into the whoniverse recently lol. So when we saw this he begged me to pin it to make it once i get the items needed. :) our toddlers watch it with us now too.

I suppose you could use a spray primer. I used a regular house paint primer, and really coated the cracks, soaked the fabric, and made it all one piece. Just the stuff you would put on your walls. Like Kills. Hope that helps!

How did you create the gauze dress? Did you purchase it or sew it? If you sewed it, what pattern did you use? On her back, does the dress go over where the wings meet? Also, what did you use for the base? so excited to create one of these! Thanks.

Well, the dress I just sort of winged. I made it, but didn't use a pattern. The wings were attached and the dress goes around them. (its slit in the back). The base is just a wooden plaque I purchased at a craft store and drilled a hole through, attaching with a ton of hot glue. Hope this helps!

So I found this and thought it was so awesome and decided to make it. My neighbor who lives below me is a huge Whovian too, so I made an extra one and left it in front of his door after propping it up on his halloween wreath so when he looked through the peephole it was the first thing he would see with a note attached that said "don't blink."

gorgeous! my suggestion from years of barbie modifying experience: boil the arms next time. you can even cut the fingers apart and reshape them when you boil them to get expressive hand gestures. like making them hold things, or pointhttp://www.catastrophegirl.com/tortoiseshell/tshell%20torso%20details.jpg

i forgot - i use round jawed needlenose pliers to make the bends so i don't a) burn my hands or b) leave marks. but you get a much cleaner look and you don't end up with issues i have like the barbie gargoyle whose ALIEN forepaws fell off when the glued joint got bumped and broke off. http://www.catastrophegirl.com/gargoyle.htmif you do more of this, you may want to know that acetone on a q tip takes her face paint off delightfully well and fabric softener does a great job detangling thrift store overplayed with barbie hair.

OMG This is just the awesome. A friend shared it on Facebook and I am so glad he did. I like Franie's idea of holiday gifts. So many Whovians....I know you can oftern find the cheap Barbies around for just a couple bucks a piece and frequently can find them at garage sales and second hand toy stores. So heading out to get some.Same question as Chaosinmotion, what primer did you use to stick to the different kinds of plastics?And, thanks for the boiling tip catatrophegirl.

Thanks so much for commenting! Im glad you like her! Yes, I find all of my Barbies at thrift stores (goodwill, etc)they aren't that hard to find. Around here anyway. To answer the primer question (this has been asked a lot. I should really add it to the post) I just used a regular house paint brush on primer like Kills. It sticks just fine to the plastic and fabric for my purposes. The doll is no longer poseable and not intended for play so it will be fine.

I'm not a Whovian, but I recently acquired a boyfriend who is. Thankfully, I had an old "Princesses of the World" barbie- the Greek one! I got to skip all the styling and draping. Thank you so much for thinking of this! This took so much strain off of our first Christmas. :)

Wow...This is Brilliant. Thanks so much for sharing this! Now I will need to visit a thrift store and discretely buy some Barbies, but I'm thinking perhaps Strawberry Shortcake, G.I. Joe or My Little Ponies might add some variety. Maybe I will install these at a local pioneer cemetery, or a funeral home in a manner that appears part of the design.

Sister of Plentitude Barbie? That sounds fascinating! The craft foam is stuff I found at Michaels I know Joann carries it as well. As would most craft stores I'm sure. The brand I used is "foamies" it comes in sheets. For the wings I got the 1/4" thickness. Its a flexible high density stuff usually used for kids crafts. It comes in a bunch of different colors. Hope this helps!

Saw this yesterday and am almost done with a Christmas present for my whovian niece today! Awesome!! FYI - got super cheap "Barbies" the the dollar tree!!! They have foam as well. Makes for a very inexpensive craft...

I love this idea! Pick up a few "broken" Barbies and Kens from a local thrift store and voila!

What I'd love to do is to make a stronger, sturdier base. Maybe something as simple as a smaller margarine container or something, filled with sand or rocks. I think they'd make perfect bookends with a strong base.

Amazifying! As with others, I was thinking I'd make some as gifts but I don't know. I'm rather greedy. I'm going to make a sort of army for myself (found a tutorial for Mummified Barbie as well) and I have the display all thought up in my head for it. It will make sure she doesn't take her Un-Dead Crew and do away with me.

Hey. I love this and thanks for sharing. I was wondering would you be able to upload the templates for the angel wings? As I'm going to try and make my own angel, I've tried to look for wing templates but yet I can't find anything that seems right for my angel.Thanks.

Awesome idea! I made one of these for my wife for Christmas, except I used a Polly Pocket doll instead. The arms bent real easy after a brief dip in boiling water. It went along great with the Tardis fairy door that I made her!

I just wanted to tell you that I made these with three teenage girls today and they turned out amazing! I would recommend using a cheap-dollar general barbie because I used a mattel barbie and it was a bit too heavy and wanted to tip over! Thanks for the inspiration-these would also be cool all painted in white and have glitter on them for a holiday angel! (ofcourse as a Doctor Who fan I will always see it as a weeping angel)

What a great idea! And don't worry about copyright. The idea of a weeping angel statue cannot be copyrighted, only the particular expression of that idea. So you couldn't make an exact copy df an angel actually built by the BBC, but since "weeping angel" is not a copyrighted or trademarked character, you can legally create your own.

I just watched this episode....I slept under my covers last night for sure. The scariest DW I have ever seen. I can't wait to see them in future episodes (future to me, anyway. I'm working my way up to the seventh season :D)

So awesome, but i just gave away my old barbies....My sister might give me one of hers....Seriously freaky, the Weeping Angels.

The Angels are my fave doctor who monsters and if I had to die by a doctor who monster it would have to be by them. This is the coolest thing I've seen. Where did you get the dress? And could I make the wings out of cardboard?

I found you through pinterest and I have to say, with my sister being a Whovian AND her birthday is coming up, I have found the perfect gift for her! Thanks so much for your brilliantly creative weeping angel!

This is a really well done project, and a great tutorial! Thanks for posting.Have you considered painting the whole thing a flat black, then "dry brushing" the gray on it? I think you'd really like the result.

Wow! I love these!! I actually came across your blog while googling 'are Weeping Angels Copyrighted?' I'm a Whovian and a Cake Decorator, I REALLY want to attempt to design and create a Weeping Angel Signature cake! I'm unsure of the copyrights on images though, and as a Cake Decorator fan art disclaimers don't apply to my work. Do you have any advice? Thanks!

About Me

I'm a creative person through and through. And a geek. So many passions,
too little time. I try to update on here, but find that my updates are
sporadic as I'm often too engrossed in what I'm making to remember to
post it!